The Fringes

We have always been taught that human actions have clear definitions. If your actions are not good then they are bad. If you are not telling the truth then you’re lying. If you are not sleeping then you are awake. If you are not present then you are undoubtedly absent.

We have been raised to think that if you dont love the you hate. That if you are not wise,it is because you are foolish. That you can either be dumb or intelligent but not both. The ultimate is that things are either black or white.

But what of the gray areas, the watershed regions where things are not so clear. The actions you can call neither good nor bad, the curcumstances that you can neither lie nor say the truth. Tell me, the teenage girl that told her attacker she is menstruating so that she can avoid being raped, did she lie? Or the drunkard that staggers on the street and dishes out unsolicited but cogent advise to those he passes, is he foolish?

There are times when we are neither awake nor asleep, there are people and situations we neither love nor hate. There are those who are acclaimed as intellectuals but when they talk on certain issues, you wonder if they had a lobotomy. Even in life, there are those that are not dead but they are not alive either.

Strict definitions and demarcations do not always work for all things. But the more important thing is who draws the line on these definitions? Is it time that defines our actions, is it the audience or is it you the doer ? Sometimes to make a valid point we must work on the fringes of black and white. And its not wrong to do so.